Spectroscopic Confirmation of a Population of Isolated, Intermediate-mass Young Stellar Objects
Wide-field searches for young stellar objects (YSOs) can place useful constraints on the prevalence of clustered versus distributed star formation. The Spitzer/IRAC Candidate YSO (SPICY) catalog is one of the largest compilations of such objects (∼120,000 candidates in the Galactic midplane). Many SPICY candidates are spatially clustered, but, perhaps surprisingly, approximately half the candidates appear spatially distributed. To better characterize this unexpected population and confirm its nature, we obtained Palomar/DBSP spectroscopy for 26 of the optically bright (G < 15 mag) “isolated” YSO candidates. We confirm the YSO classifications of all 26 sources based on their positions on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, H and Ca ii line emission from over half the sample, and robust detection of infrared excesses. This implies a contamination rate of
Item Type | Article |
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Additional information | © 2022. The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, to view a copy of the license, see: Published by the American Astronomical Society. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords | be stars, t tauri stars, spectroscopy, star formation, young stellar objects, 723, 1681, 1558, 1569, 1834, astrophysics - astrophysics of galaxies, astrophysics - solar and stellar astrophysics, astronomy and astrophysics, space and planetary science |
Date Deposited | 15 May 2025 15:09 |
Last Modified | 31 May 2025 00:37 |